~A novella set in the world of Lucy Kevin’s “Four Weddings & A Fiasco”~

Kindergarten teacher Ella Caine is getting married, but if you ask her best friend Jordan, she’s making a mistake. He’s spent a lifetime in love with Ella, but now that she’s set a date at The Rose Chalet, he’s running out of time to prove she loves him, too. When he overhears her wishing on a falling star, it might be just the touch of magic he needs to finally make Ella listen to her heart.

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Excerpt

Jordan Harrison listened to the message one more time, absolutely sure it had to be some kind of joke. Not that Ella made a lot of jokes and certainly nothing this over the top. His favorite strawberry blonde usually went for sly remarks only he ever heard, but he supposed it could happen. God knows he’d laughed hysterically when he played it the first time. Why else would anyone claim to be marrying Herbert Whistlefife? On purpose?

Unless she was serious…

Horror blasted through him. Dear God, she was serious. Sweet, funny Ella with her soft heart and quietly sneaky ways marrying that arrogant, self-absorbed math schmuck who acted like she should be grateful for his attention.

Jordan was up on his feet before he remembered he was in a tent. His head stretched the top and bounced him soundly back on his butt. Well, that woke him up.

He lay back on his sleeping bag and forced himself to think. His first instinct was to call her and make her admit she was messing with him. This is like that time you glued my underwear to the bottom of my drawer, right?

That could go really wrong, though, because while not a lot of people knew it, Ella Caine had a hell of a temper. She’d given him a black eye when they were twelve and he’d picked up her skirt in front of the whole class. She’d been wearing shorts of course, but that hadn’t mattered to her. Or his mother, he remembered now with a grin. She’d grounded him for two weeks for that stunt and taken Ella out for ice cream.

He, on the other hand, had figured something out that day, holding a wet steak over his eye while his father smoked and chuckled. Something his dad had clearly already known for a while—twelve years old and already head over heels in love with the girl next door.

The years went by, he and Ella going through every stage of childhood together. All but the stage he’d longed for. No childhood sweethearts for them. Not even a first kiss.

He’d tried—God knows he’d tried—to get over her. Dates with girls, even a few thin relationships when he got older, doing his level best to fall in love with someone else so Ella would never have to know exactly how out of his mind he was for her. It never worked. Maybe because Ella had never been attached to anyone else. They might not have been lovers but there was never anyone else for her either.

Until Herbert.

Jordan bit back a snarl and hit the return call feature on his phone.

She picked up on the fourth ring, her voice husky with sleep. ldquo;Jordy?”

“Married?”Okay, not his best jump into a conversation but he couldn’t get any other word through his teeth.

“You got my message.”She made a noise he could only guess accompanied a stretch and his imagination took off without him. Ella, all sleep warm and soft, that glorious sunset hair of hers spread wildly across the pillow…“Isn’t it great?”

The thought of her, whispering to him in bed? Fabulous.

“I never thought Herbert would ask.”She yawned and he pictured her lids drooping because she wasn’t quite awake. The sneaky part of him shoved aside the lascivious side. Ella lost her firm grip on propriety when she was half-awake and he’d learned years ago it was the best time to get honest answers out of her. A good friend would tell her to go back to sleep, that he’d call her back later and not ask her questions she normally wouldn’t answer.

Desperate friends did something else.

Jordan scrunched his eyes against his conscience and told it to shut up. “Did he ask?”Or had she gotten tired of her boyfriend taking her for granted and asked herself? Just the thought put a knot in his stomach.

“No, he just put the ring on my finger and asked me to pass the peas.”

He let go the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, hearing a touch of displeasure there. Only right, since Ella had been dreaming of the perfect marriage—and therefore the perfect proposal—for almost her entire life. She probably didn’t even say anything to good old Herbert about it either. She simply accepted what she was offered and never demanded more.

He never understood that about his best friend. With him, Ella had no compunction about letting her feelings—particularly her displeasure—be known. With everyone else, she put on a polite face and a serene smile, hiding that temper of hers with a shyly iron will. Unfortunately, that will was what kept her on a course that wasn’t entirely good for her.

Like marrying Herbert Whistlefife.

“Why would you want to go and marry Herbert,”he asked on a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly to keep from sounding too needy, ldquo;when you have me?”

Her laugh was sleepier than ever, the husky, lonely tone of it reaching across thousands of miles and pulling his heart right out. “You’re not here, Jordy. You’re never here.”

He listened to her breathing, soft puffs into the speaker and wished he was there, able to stroke the softness of her cheek. Better yet, that she was here with him, taking part in the adventures they’d dreamed up together.

“I will be, Ella.”It was more than a promise.

But as he told her to hang up the phone, waiting until she finally disconnected, he knew she wouldn’t remember their phone call at all.